The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.
In the automobile field, embedded software applications are frequently developed as a function of, or on the basis of, physical and logical signal values (e.g., accelerator pedal positions and other information signals). To test the respective software applications, meaningful sequences for these signals should be defined to execute the software application while using the signals concerned, and to evaluate or to assess the output values generated.
One exemplary scenario, can take a form in which, by actuating the accelerator pedal, a vehicle is accelerated up to a predetermined speed, and the accelerator pedal is released after reaching this speed. A simulation model can be used to describe the vehicle with corresponding interfaces for influencing the accelerator pedal.
One issue that can occur is that the specification of signals that should be similar to those that actually arise in the real world is time-consuming and liable to error. As a result, this step is often neglected until the software application is integrated into the embedded hardware. A reaction to the signals calculated during the execution of the software application concerned, and their change, is possible without making a change to the software application itself, as long as the signals are not internal signals. However, if the internal signals or variables needs to be changed while executing a test case, the software has to be changed, which can in turn result in unwanted side effects if the changes concerned are not removed again before the relevant code generation.
For example purposes only, such teachings are provided in U.S. Pat. No. 7,523,441 B2, European Patent No. 1,898,282 A1 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,539,534 B1.